Quy Nhon: A secluded stopover to Nha Trang

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So myself and Vinny left Hoi An at the ungodly hour of 6am, when all of Vietnam seemed to be out and about! Vinny got his vietnamese breakfast roll while I naively thought that the bus would make stops along the way as it was a five hour bus journey to Quy Nhon, a fishing town on the coast half way between Hoi An and Nha Trang. No such luck, we were bet onto a small minibus and off we went for probably the strangest bus journey I've been on (so far!). First of all, the horn on the bus was broken and as anyone who has been to Asia will know, the horn is as important for navigating the roads as the steering wheel! But that didn’t stop them, as one guy was given the job of sticking his head out the side window and going "way, way, way" every couple of seconds... for five hours!! What was also strange, at least to us westerners on the bus, was the fact that although the bus was a 15 seater and was full, it didn’t stop the bus driver from stopping along the way anytime a local flagged the bus down. Local people were getting on and off the bus the whole way along, and at one point there were 22 of us on the bus! I still managed to sleep for half the journey although hunger kicked in after a while as the more prepared tourists on the bus pulled out pastries and oreo cookies while I looked on!

We eventually arrived in Quy Nhon, which looked beautiful, with a long palm tree lined coast dotted with fishing boats. We were dropped at our guesthouse, which we had thankfully booked beforehand. After checking in, we headed out looking for food. Quy Nhon, despite its coastal location has more or less been left alone by tourists. No one seemed to speak a word of English and we couldn’t find a restaurant that had an english menu. In one place, the guy actually took out a huge fish from the freezer to show us what he served! On the plus side, everywhere we went people were saying hello to us! We would be walking down the street and would hear people from all directions shouting hello (although that’s all they could say!) Vinny said he felt like an ambassador or something, smiling and waving at everyone as we walked along! Although at one point, we came across a fruit stand and at this stage, I was about to fall down with hunger so I picked up an orange and asked how much it was. The woman selling it said “20,000 dong” which is approx $1 which is about 4 times the normal price. I refused to pay and she refused to haggle so on we went (as the women laughed their arses off in the background) not realising it would be another couple of hours before we found a place, called Barbara’s Kiwi Connection where we had a savage feed! Headed back to the guesthouse to chill out for a few hours before heading out for Vietnamese dinner which was basic but nice! Bought a few 333 beers and went back to the guesthouse to try watch Liverpool –v- Man City. Unfortunately for Vinny, it wasn’t on any sports channel so he had to listen to it on the radio!

The next morning, we headed back to Barbara’s Kiwi Connection for an amazing breakfast, sitting in the sun looking out at the sea! We both agreed that we were glad we stopped at Quy Nhon along the way, instead of going straight to Nha Trang! Its quite a rundown underdeveloped town which was somewhat surprising, given its amazing location by the sea but the beautiful scenery and lack of other tourists made it an interesting place to visit! We later boarded another 5 hour bus, this time headed to Nha Trang! Some very scary cliff side roads along the way but amazing, breathtaking scenery that kept me entertained nearly the whole journey, although there was one scary moment on a narrow winding road on the edge of a cliff where our bus driver decided to overtake a truck on a corner!!! Seriously!! But we made it safe and sound to Nha Trang, a place that would exceed all expectations!

A xxx

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